Known for his hyper-realistic portraits, minimalistic landscapes with figures, Metin Kalkızoğlu’s solo exhibition “Nothing Important Happened Today.” features works produced with acrylic on canvas and paper. As I write this introductory sentence, I cannot help but think: Is it right to limit an artist’s production only by the material they use?
When we look at a work, even though we are actually looking at the paints spread on the cloth stretched on the canvas or the paper, our mind carries out a creative activity very similar to that of the artist. Sigmund Freud calls this activity “primary process thinking” and states that we primarily think in this manner, in other words, the hidden elements beneath what we see, play a more dominant role in our minds.
Although the focus of the exhibition is the simplistic but detailed works that at first glance may give the spectator the illusion that they are photographs, the game Kalkızoğlu plays with his spectator goes beyond this simple illusion that can be encountered in nearly every hyperrealist painting.
This idea will become clearer when we consider the different elements that Kalkızoğlu’s works contain such as the embodiment of a limited number of figures, the detail of these figures, the space and position they occupy on the canvas, and the background of the painting. The minimalism of the paintings containing a limited number of figures and the simplicity reflected by this minimalism, allow the spectator to attribute symbolic meanings to these figures. Compared to the artist’s previous exhibitions, the details of the figures are also striking. The figures, which are usually brought to the foreground of the canvas, seem to want to tell us something. In this respect, if the foggy sky covering the background and the foreground of the painting is likened to the distinction between consciousness and the subconscious/unconscious, it can be said that Kalkızoğlu actually presents the spectator with a limited number of symbolic figures that he brings to the plane of consciousness and asks them to communicate especially with these figures.
In reference to the Freudian psychoanalyst and critic Norman Holland, who combines reader-response theory with psychoanalysis, symbolic figures, that are the product of the artist, match with what the spectator produces in their mind which results in the creation of a pure and sincere bond between the artist and the spectator at the level of consciousness. The success of this bond is what designates the spectator’s enjoyment and appreciation of a work.
The vast, snow-covered landscapes, a person sitting or standing in front of his/her hut in these landscapes, automobiles of unknown origin and destination, wild animals taking a last glance before fleeing or dying, uncanny people whom we do not know whether they are hunters or prey, evoke themes or feelings of loneliness, escape, distancing and perhaps a bit of the uncanny in the spectator.
What is more interesting is that, this uncanny atmosphere also happens to create a strange sense of peace in the spectator. Kalkızoğlu’s success perhaps lies in his ability to evoke these contradictory emotions; to enable us to connect with the figures, whether they are hunter or prey.
Rumor has it that, the British King George III wrote “nothing important happened today” in his diary on the day America gained its independence; according to another rumor, this note was written by Louis XVI, who returned empty-handed from a hunting trip on the eve of the French Revolution. Metin Kalkızoğlu, with the deepening meaning in his paintings, may also be saying that something is happening but we are not aware of it.
These are, of course, just ideas whirling in the mind of the author of this article, who had the chance to look at the artist’s works before you. If we adapt Roland Barthes’ ideas to the art of painting, we can say that there are as many meanings as there are spectators. Kalkızoğlu invites you to make your own meanings.
